Lesson Two

ELAR Level Six, Unit 10: Narrative Paragraph Writing

LESSON TWO


In  Lesson One you learned a few things about narrative paragraph writing.  You learned that narrative writing tells about changes in time so the writing "keeps moving" as the reader follows.  A narrative paragraph can be used to tell about what happened (a story), to explain a process (how something works or how to do something), or to explain the causes and effects (results that were caused from another event). 


Narrative paragraphs should include listing specific details and giving clear descriptions to reveal a person's character and not just his/her outward appearance.  Conveying a  certain mood by choice of words and communicating a theme and focusing on some insight into human nature are other strategies that will really help you write an incredible narrative paragraph, one that will draw your readers in and keep them focused on the writing. 

A glimpse of the four types of authors' points of view was addressed in Lesson One: 

First-person point of view - The narrator is a character in the story; and the story gets told through what he sees, hears, and observes.  The narrator uses firs t-person pronouns such as I, me, mine, our, ours, we, my, ourselves.

Third-person point of view - The narrator is not a character in the story but is an observer of it. The narrator tells the story as if she/he were an outsider looking in.  Since the narrator is not a character in the story, nothing about him/her is identifiable -- not even whether the narrator is a male or female. The narrator tells the story by telling what the characters in the story say or do. The narrator is unable to look into anyone's mind;  therefore, the reader only knows what the narrator is able to observe.

Third-person limited - The narrator tells the story as if he/she were looking through the eyes of one character.   The story gets told by telling what the one character thinks, sees, feels, observes, and does.  

Third-person omniscient (all knowing) - The narrator knows and relays thoughts and actions of all the characters.  The thoughts, feelings, observations, and actions of every character are revealed to the reader.  It is as if the narrator can see into the minds of all the main characters, and the story gets told by revealing what their inner-most thoughts are. 

As promised in Lesson One, these four types of authors' points of view will be fully discussed in  Lessons Two through Four.   In this Lesson, you will learn about the First-person point of view and the Third-person point of view. 

In the First-person point of view, the writer, or the narrator (someone who tells a story), is a character in the story.  He/she uses first-person pronouns such as the words I, me, my, mine, we, our, us, ours.  These pronouns are used by the person who is speaking, and in this case means the author/writer/narrator.  

The writer uses the First-person point of view in the following paragraph.  Notice the underlined first-person pronouns used in the narrative paragraph.  The writer, or narrator, is the first person or the one who is speaking. 

I would not believe this had it not happened to me.   How long does fresh spinach, organically grown without any preservatives, usually last?  Perhaps it might last for a few days.  Spinach normally gets slimy and develops wilting edges in a week.  This is the unbelievable part;  my spinach lasted for three months!  I should have known this bundle of spinach had amazing powers when I first spotted it at the City Market. I marveled at the deep green color, the extreme crispness, and especially at the ability of the bunch of spinach to stand up on its own without a container or a basket!  Since I was the only one to eat spinach in my household, I gathered up two bunches, went home, and put the spinach in a large, airtight, plastic container.  The greens were purchased at the end of October; and in January, I discovered the plastic container in the back of my refrigerator.  Fearing the unknown, I gingerly opened the lid and peeled back the paper towels.  There was the freshest and crispiest spinach imaginable.   It was as if time had stood still for this amazing vegetable.  It is now the first day of February, and I have eaten the last of my super-duper spinach.  In the spring, I will go back and search for more of this amazing vegetable which can retain its lushness for three months at a time.

Please read the following paragraph.  It is the same paragraph that was used in Practice  Quiz One.  Then answer the following questions after you have reviewed the narrative writing below.

I would not believe this had it not happened to me.  How long does fresh spinach, organically grown without any preservatives, usually last?  Perhaps it might last for a few days.  Spinach normally gets slimy and develops wilting edges in a week.  This is the unbelievable part; my spinach lasted for three months!  I should have known this bundle of spinach had amazing powers when I first spotted it at the City Market.  I marveled at the deep green color, the extreme crispness, and especially at the ability of the bunch of spinach to stand up on its own without a container or a basket!  Since I was the only one to eat spinach in my household, I gathered up two bunches, went home, and put the spinach in a large, airtight, plastic container.  The greens were purchased at the end of October; and in January, I discovered the plastic container in the back of my refrigerator.  Fearing the unknown, I gingerly opened the lid and peeled back the paper towels. There was the freshest and crispiest spinach imaginable.   It was as if time had stood still for this amazing vegetable.  It is now the first day of February, and I have eaten the last of my super-duper spinach.  In the spring, I will go back and search for more of this amazing vegetable which can retain its lushness for three months at a time. 

You can even narrate a story about spinach! 

The Third-person point of view is  quite different from the firs t-person point of view.    

The Third-person point of view is one in which the narrator is not a character in the story but is an observer of it.   

An observer is "one who watches attentively and is aware." 

Third-person pronouns are used when writing a narrative paragraph from the Third-person point of view.   Third-person pronouns occur in compositions when you are talking about someone or something.  Some third-person pronouns include he, him, his, she, her, hers, it, its, they, them their, theirs. 

Please read the following paragraph.  It is an example of a paragraph that is written from the Third-person point of view.    You will find that the narrator is not a character in this story.  The story gets told by a narrator who is not a character in the story but who is simply telling what the main characters are seeing, hearing, and doing.  Please notice that this point of view uses third-person pronouns.   Keep in mind that some third-person pronouns are he, him, his, she, her, hers, it, its, they, them their, theirs.  Then answer the questions that follow the paragraph.

EXAMPLE OF THIRD-PERSON LIMITED 

“Day had dawned cold and gray when the man turned aside from the main Yukon trail.  He climbed the high earth-bank where a little-traveled trail led east through the pine forest. It was a high bank, and he paused to breathe at the top. He excused the act to himself by looking at his watch. It was nine o’clock in the morning. There was no sun or promise of sun, although there was not a cloud in the sky. It was a clear day. However, there seemed to be an indescribable darkness over the face of things. That was because the sun was absent from the sky. This fact did not worry the man. He was not alarmed by the lack of sun. It had been days since he had seen the sun.” (Excerpts from To Build a Fire by Jack London)  


The Third-person limited point of view is where the narrator sees the world through the eyes of one character and knows and relays the thoughts and actions of only this one character.  Can you see how this is very different from First-person point of view? 

Please remember that when writing from the third-person point of view,  the narrator is not a  character in the story.  Some third person pronouns include he, him, his, she, her, hers, it, its, they, them their, theirs.  If you missed any of the answers, go back and review some more.  If you need to review first- and third-person pronouns, please go back and review this lesson. 





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